Hi pszaro,
Sorry to hear about that!

The watchOS app is limited by two things: watchOS background activity schedule, and the CPU/time given to the app by watchOS. Both of these can cause the app to incrementally/eventually get out of sync, particularly if you don't open the app very often.

You can add the Remember The Milk app to your watchOS Dock in the iOS Watch app, and that can help prioritize the app for CPU time. (Having the app as a watch face complication is the other thing too.)

As far as it catching up, if you open the Remember The Milk watchOS app to the four icons the app is able to actively sync with the iOS app to update its synced tasks/changes. This can take a bit of time, so tapping the screen to keep the screen on may be necessary to help complete this process while your tasks and changes catch up.

Maybe this helps now? Or may help the next time you notice anything? Keep me posted on what you find either way, or let me know if you've seen anything else in the meantime.

Keep me posted on what you find!

Thanks andrewski for the feedback.

I have updated the "Dock" settings for the WatchOS app from "Recent" to explicitly listing RTM.

RTM was already being used in a Complication, so that did not change.

I opened the WatchOS RTM app to the four icons. I have keep the screen awake for a full hour, but the badge count, nor the tasks in the WatchOS app update. Still an ongoing issue with the sync.

Hi pszaro,
Sorry that has continued. You may want to check the "Due Soon" view in the app compared with the Today view in the iOS app or web app—once the watchOS app has synced the list there it should update in the complication number as well.

Keep me posted on what you find, and feel free to contact us if you are seeing anything odd and want to send a screenshot, etc.!

I'll echo pszaro.

The RTM app for Apple Watch is unusable. The sync takes forever... and even when it's sync'd, the RTM app is painfully slow.

Absolutely ZERO of my other Apple Watch apps are this slow.

andrewski, I have had the "Due Soon" open in the WatchOS app for some time now and comparing with the Today view in the iOS app and web app, but appears the WatchOS is no longer syncing. After repeated attempts removing the WatchOS app, it seems like after the initial sync when reinstalling the app on the WatchOS, future syncs do not work.

Sorry to hear about the experience for both of you here. A few general things to keep in mind:
* Background Refresh must be on for the app in iOS Settings and the Watch app Settings.
* Low Power Mode must be off in iOS to allow the iOS-watchOS connection.

With those in mind, it'd be great if you could try the following to see if we can narrow down on this:
* Add a test task to your iOS app, optionally make it the oldest due task so it shows at the top of Today (presuming it's sorted by date).
* Then, remove and reinstall the watchOS app. (In the Watch app on iOS, toggle the "on/off" button to remove and then install it.)
* After that, set up the watchOS app by opening it and waiting for it to initialize.
* Once it's ready, add a task there, either with the Siri integration or with the Add Task screen in the app.
* Also, complete the test task.

After these actions, it should give us a situation where a sync should happen fairly quickly. (The app can request a background sync but this may take up to 30 minutes to occur.)

Opening the watchOS and iOS apps in the foreground is a way of bypassing those limitations by keeping the apps "open" so they can talk with each other.

Keep me posted on what you find with the above and feel free to contact us if you want to continue discussing privately.

* Background Refresh must be on for the app in iOS Settings and the Watch app Settings. --Confirmed Background Refresh is enabled
* Low Power Mode must be off in iOS to allow the iOS-watchOS connection. --Confirmed not in Low Power Mode

I performed your test and everything did get get synced up when I had all three app interfaces open. I was able to see the new tasks and completed tasks come across on the WatchOS, iOS App and Web App. However, that was with "Tasks Due Today" being less than 20, on that particular day.

I think I have narrowed down where the bug is. Fast forward a new day, and I now have an additional 25 new tasks due today, bringing the total in the AM is 35. When I have all three app interfaces open, and I complete a task on the iOS app, 15 in fact, the WatchOS app never refreshes, both while the app is open, or waiting the 30 min or so. (waited 2 hours). Even when in the WatchOS app, and clicking on "Due Soon", does not update the badge on the WatchOS, nor the tasks listed in the WatchOS app. I tried rebooting the Watch, when it came back up, opened up the RTM app and still have the data from the morning, all 35 tasks listed, as well as the 35 badge. The only way I can "wake up" the WatchOS app, is by creating a new task on the WatchOS. This seems to force a sync, in which this new task shows up on the iOS app and Web App. Only at that point, does it seem to perform a one time sync from the WatchOS. The rest of the day, the updates seem to occur as it should. However, a new day arrives, same thing occurs. The WatchOS seems to be stuck until you wake it up, so to speak.

Just a follow up; A new day here, 23 new tasks today. I have completed some tasks today in the iOS app. The Web App also reflects the updates. The Apple Watch has yet to refresh the data/tasks. I have gone into the WatchOS app, displayed all the tasks. The badge is still on the number when the new day arrived. I will keep this as-is for now. Tomorrow, I will see that this same behavior is consistent. I will then test creating a task via Siri on the Apple Watch. If it performs like my previous test, this should "wake up" the WatchOS app and perform a sync back to the iPhone. Stay tuned...

Thanks for testing all that and giving us those details. I will discuss those with the rest of the team, and we'll keep you posted with any updates or changes.

I will be keen to hear what you find tomorrow then too!

New day, new follow up, 30 new tasks; I completed some tasks today in the iOS app. The Web App also reflects the updates.

The WatchOS Badge count reflects the additional 30 new tasks. Total now on the WatchOS is 78, where is should be 27. Here is what I tested today:

-Created 2 new tasks on the WatchOS via Siri. This did not sync to the iPhone iOS RTM app. I thought it would based on my previous test, but performed on day 1 of a new WatchOS install. More on that below.
-Confirmed RTM is on my dock on WatchOS. I went into the "Due Soon" section and still see the 78 items, 51 of which were already completed on the iOS app and confirmed sync via Web App.
-I performed a force-quit on the WatchOS RTM app, relaunched it and sync did not occur. Still have badge count of 78 with all 78 tasks listed in the "Due Soon" section.
-I powered off the Apple Watch, then powered it back on. Upon launching the WatchOS RTM app, still have badge of 78 with all 78 tasks listed in the "Due Soon" section.
-I then decided to restart the iPhone. This did nothing to the communication between the WatchOS app and the iPhone RTM app. WatchOS app shows 78 badge and lists all 78 items in "Due Soon" section.

At this point, I can say that the WatchOS RTM app has lost all connection to the iPhone. If I remove the app from WatchOS, and reinstall, it works for that day. As soon as a new day rolls around, it seems to lose connection to the iPhone. Hopefully this can addressed in the next update. RTM is a great app and has helped me tremendously since 2009!

Hi pszaro,
Thanks for all the testing! Sorry to hear about your experience with the app.

All these details are helpful though, and I've passed this feedback on to the development team.

It sounds like iOS-to-web syncing is working fine, which is good. That's very wide open as for as iOS is concerned, so that bodes well.

However, watchOS-to-iOS syncing can be slow generally (it's conducted over Bluetooth, and the Apple Watch uses little energy) so the background sync time given to the Apple Watch app can sometimes be insufficient.

The main workaround in that situation is to have the watchOS app open in the foreground and to keep the screen awake for multiple minutes while it catches up. I understand that this is probably not doable, and almost certainly not how you usually use your Apple Watch, but that may be something you can do during a morning review or something when you're using your Apple Watch more actively.

I'll try to keep you posted here with any changes or updates from the development team on this behavior or any other ways we can improve this kind of situation with the app.

FYI - Tested this on my wife's setup and it's an issue for her as well. Same results as I indicated in previous comments on this thread.

Apple Watch: Series 3, running WatchOS v5.0.1
iPhone 7, running iOS v12.0
RTM, running v4.3.22

Hi pszaro,
Thanks for testing and sorry to hear that about her experience as well.

Is that the same number of tasks, or a similar number? That seems like a good detail to make sure we have for each of you as we continue investigating this.

Thanks again!

The number of tasks differs between us, but the issue with syncing after the initial setup day is the same for both of us.

Hi pszaro,
Thanks for confirming! We'll continue looking into this. Appreciate the extra details to help shape our investigating. :)

New phone, iPhone XS, same issue exists

Thanks for updating us on that! We're continuing to investigate this, and my understanding is that it's more general than specific devices but that will likely help to know. :)

Let me know if anything seems different with the new iPhone, or if we can help with anything else too!

Updated to the newly available iOS app v4.3.28. Initial testing resulted in the same issue. Decide to remove RTM from the iPhone and subsequently the Apple Watch app. Rebooted both devices and reinstalled the iOS app, followed by Apple Watch app (Manually). Initial testing looks to be working in respect to issue mentioned in this thread. The true test is when a new day turns. I will report back tomorrow.

Hi pszaro,
We don't expect any major changes with this update, but let us know if anything changes tomorrow or in the next few days! Resetting alone may change things, so that may be enough to give some different results even though you'd tried that before.

andrewski,
You are correct. The latest update has not fixed the issue. Issue is still occurring.

Hello RTM team,

first of all I am sorry for my English,

I have almost the same proble with synchronization. I bought RTM especially for Apple Watch new WatchOS 5 complication support. And now I little bit regret the spent of my money, because the synchronization funcionality is little bit strange.

When I create task on iPhone (iOS 12.1) or on PC app this both devices are snchronized well. But on Watch I can see only "old" number of tasks. I must open app on Watch, go to due soon and there I must change from today to today again or to another date.

The second way is to change Watch face to another modular infograph where I have RTM app in the middle. Usually the app refresh this face and when I go to my main face it synchoronize too in few seconds.

I can create task from Watch and its synchronize to iOS immediately.So I think the connection is OK, but in my opinion the problem is about "query" and "time of query".


Could you please tell me, how the Watch app make query? It is "push" like an email and it depend on WatchOS how it resolve it? For example when the CPU usage is to high or battery is to low, etc.? Is there possibility to make new options in app to set fixed time of synchorization and all of users can set it independet?

Because I tried to many and many todo apps before buying RTM and there is not problem with it (Things 3, 2.Do, Todoist, Apple Reminders, Apple calendar).

Of course I tried to instal apps in iPhone a Watch again, reset Watch to factory setting, pair Watch and iPhone again. I checked backround synchronization. Everything what can I do.


Please let me know about my problem, because without functional synchronization on background on Watch I will not and can not to use this app in the future. And it would be shame, because it is good app.

Thank you very much!!!

Hello again,

I found information about 3rd party app sync power budget.

From Apple guide:
How much data can you provide in advance? If your app’s data changes frequently, it might be difficult to provide enough data to display in a complication. Worse, if you refresh your complication data too frequently, you may exceed your background execution or transfer budgets.
Watch apps with a complication on the active watch face are given larger budgets for background tasks, but the background execution time per hour is still limited. Alternatively, you can generate the complication data on the user’s iPhone and transfer it to the Watch app, but you are given only 50 complication transfers a day. Be sure that you can provide useful and timely information within these constraints.

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/General/Conceptual/WatchKitProgrammingGuide/ManagingComplications.html

Could you explain me, how do you manage this restriction please?

Thank you very much

Hi rybkaladislav,
Thanks for your questions. The watchOS app manages the schedule for all apps but each app can request a sync. We manage our requests throughout the day to make sure those are not all used up.

The issue here is that some syncs may not complete even when being allocated from watchOS. Each time watchOS gives an app some time to communicate, it still has a timeout period, and the Apple Watch app may not complete in that time.

We're continuing to look into this scenario. Let us know if we can help with anything else in the meantime!

FYI - Updated to the newly available iOS app v4.3.30, along with iOS 12.2. Initial testing resulted in the same issue. Issue has not been resolved yet. Any possible ETA?

We don't expect any substantive changes here in this update, but thanks for staying tuned. You can watch our release notes (or App Store updates) for more changes here.

We'll try to be in touch personally too if we have any details or questions along the way.